Average Engineering Wages in the U.S. (May 2011)

Many of the major engineering magazine websites publish annual salary survey results that have polled their
readership. They always provide numbers explaining how they arrived at their charts, but in the end, those might
not represent a true cross-section of salaries since they only represent people who bothered to participate. Maybe
the type of person who fills out surveys tends to bias the results upward or downward. Those polls also usually
include participants from other countries, with salary information being converted to U.S. dollars (although often
separate charts are included showing the distribution of data by country). Still, I am never quite sure of what
the numbers really mean. Since I am not sophisticated enough to collect my own statistics, instead I went to the
website of the
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
to get their latest numbers (as of May 2011) for incomes of all wage earners. Salaries used here are from the
"Average Mean Wage" column in their table.

The annual
EE
Time Global Salary & Opinion Survey (pp. 18) usually provides a conversion factor that can be applied to
determine equivalent pay in other countries. For Japan it is 0.78, The EU is 0.71, India is 0.25, and for
Communist countries like China it is 0.16. But hold on, the disparity is even greater than that because the EE
Times numbers do not include the value of benefits (medical, dental, retirement), but in Socialist and Communist
countries it is inseparable from the base pay. The typical benefits package for a U.S. engineer is 25-33% of base
pay, so the total effective compensation is greater than the $107.3k. That explains why so many (but by no means
all) engineers want to work in the U.S. Personally, I'd like to live and work in Germany for a few years.

The BLS website also has a handy
Inflation Calculator. I entered the
engineering realm in 1989 after graduating from the
University of Vermont
with a BSEE degree. The 2011 average wage for an electronics engineer is $94,670, so per the calculator, the
equivalent in 1989 was $52,187.84 - not too shabby, I suppose. My first job as an engineer was at the General
Electric Aerospace Electronic Systems Division in Utica, NY, with a starting salary of about $32k/year. I'd tell
you what I make now at RF Cafe, but it's a trade secret. If RF Cafe ever becomes a publically traded company,
it'll be published in the quarterly report.

Speaking of people (you and me) who work for a living, a recent
news item stated that the number of Americans on
disability; i.e., not working but getting a monthly check, is now at 5.6% of the working age population. The
BLS reports the official
unemployment rate at 8.2% (does not include people no longer looking for
work). 1.7% receive more than 50% of their income from Welfare. That means 5 people are working to support
themselves and 1 other non-worker. Now, we all know those numbers are always reported optimistically, so it's
worse than that. A way to look at it is that when you are standing in line at McDonalds with five people in front
of you, on average one is having her meal paid for by the rest of you in line. Why mention that? Well, when you
look at the salaries below, remember that a large portion of it you will never have to spend as you desire because
of federal, state, and local income taxes, fuel taxes, property taxes, school taxes, retail sales taxes, utility
taxes and fees, transfer taxes and usage fees (car, boat, motorcycle, house), business taxes, etc. , etc., etc.
Keep that in mind the next time a politician or protestor tells you you're not paying your fair share.

But
I digress. For the table below, I picked out mainly engineering and technician jobs, with a few related jobs in
the sciences. Where possible, the difference in pay between engineer and technician in the same field was
calculated. The typical engineering job pays about 1.5x to 2x, which might seem like a lot to a technician;
however, having filled both positions during my career, I can say that after factoring in level of responsibility,
unpaid overtime, sacrificed vacation days, and the expense and effort to earn the degree, the disparity does not
seem at all unfair. It's no different than the difference between being a nurse or a doctor or being a dental
hygienist versus being a dentist. For a reference point, the mean overall national wage is $51,350. These numbers
do not include the value of benefits, bonuses, stock options, etc. Once again here is the
BLS page to do your own research.